


Harry Potter: Master Clockworker

by broken_hearted_bard



Series: This, That or the Other Thing [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Canon Compliant Until The Epilogue, Clockmaking, Clocks, Clockworker, EWE, F/M, Gen, Harry is the Master of Death too, Multi, Non-canon pairings, Not Canon Compliant to HPatCC, Post-Hogwarts, Post-War, Rose Granger-Weasley and Hugo Granger-Weasley mentioned, Time-Turner, Wixen, canon characters mentioned/talked about but not seen, clock magick, other characters mentioned but not shown - Freeform, pairings (mostly NOT canon) mentioned but not seen, time-travel, woc!Hermione
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-06
Updated: 2019-03-06
Packaged: 2019-11-12 14:42:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18012809
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/broken_hearted_bard/pseuds/broken_hearted_bard
Summary: Harry's passion for clocks developed out of a desire to understand time, and therefore to travel back in time.We begin 12 years after the final battle; EWE.Note 1: 'Wixen' is taken from another author (MissjuliaMiriam), who gave credit to another author for its use. I think it's an excellent word to describe wizards and witches (as a whole) and will be using it in this story. I'm using Wizen as the plural sense (witches and wizards), but will sometimes fall back on simply: witch. Witch is also gender neutral, if you weren't aware.Note 2: The use and limits of a Time-Turner have been made up by me.[This]





	1. The Clockworker

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry's obsession with clocks.

_1st, November, 2010_

It was not a passion for actual clocks that had made him stumble upon his life's work, but rather a desire to understand time and be fluent in the language of Horology. He had wanted, and desperately in those days, to be so intimate with time as to turn it back. Time-travel had always been his ultimate goal and, even though he liked his life, it still was.

Harry Potter was a Master Clockworker. He designed and repaired clocks. He made clocks that he could not salvage or repair into art installations or decor. He made magickal clocks and muggle clocks as well. He sold it all in a very small shop (with a very large basement) on a tiny street some ways away from the main thoroughfare of Godric's Hollow. He had originally wanted a shop in the village square, but had come to the conclusion that he'd have been peppered with onlookers instead of customers.

It had taken him two years to wrest his family home away from the Ministry Landmark Department (though they neither owned the property or the rights to it). Harry had spent months on the restoration and improvement of his family home, and he lived there quite comfortably [alone]. 

Muggles seemed to enjoy the clock-related art and decor -- stylized black and white photos of clocks on various surfaces, grouped together or separate; paintings of clocks; a side-table with clocks as the feet; a small eating table with a clock set into the center, things like that. They bought his few muggle clocks less often, but that suited him fine. Wixen (witches and wizards) favoured his magickal clocks and pocket watches -- some of which were modeled after the Weasleys' kitchen clock. The Family Clocks were all customizable, and Harry did a sizeable profit in them about 6 to 7 times a year. They, along with the goods muggles favoured, paid his meager bills almost entirely.

Godric's Hollow was a largely magickal village, but it had muggles as well and, as such, much of the village was hidden to muggle view. This did not include Harry's shop. He welcomed muggles, as clientele and customers, even if he did have anti-muggle and muggle-repellant charms placed on many of his display cases and shelves.

The elements of time-keeping fascinated him in that they must be understood (alongside magick, maths, potions and science) in order to succeed at travelling through time. He had been able to explain his desire to study time-turners and clocks of all kinds by saying he wished to design clocks. Being the Master of Death and Harry Potter had gotten him into a sequestered room, deep in the Ministry, to view one of the remaining time-turners and being friends with an Unspeakable (Draco Malfoy) had granted him the boon of being able to study its parts and put it back together. Molly Weasley had let him borrow their family clock as well, which had started him on the path to making them himself.

If anyone suspected his true motive, going back in time, they did not question him. No one asked him about it, and they all seemed happy to leave him to his clock making and repairing. Hermione was a bit flabbergasted by his choice of profession, but since she was busy mothering two young children and being a lawyer for the Department of the Care and Regulation of Magickal Creatures, she didn't have time to argue with him about it [anymore].

Ron had been angry when he'd fled the Auror Corps, but Harry had given them all the time he could. The first five years of his life, after the Battle of Hogwarts, had been dedicated to the Academy and then assignments -- tracking down criminals, arresting stray Death Eaters, questioning suspects and filing paperwork. Harry had one thing to show for his three years as an Auror -- a good friendship with Draco Malfoy. They had crossed paths in the lunchroom and in the halls day after day, until finally Harry had wanted to know what Draco was up to. When Draco had explained that he was there for a different training program, Harry had relented and they'd become friends, over time.

Harry had reliable customers and good connections with the people he sourced his goods from. He'd repaired the same grandfather clock for one of his clients dozens of times -- no questions asked, regardless of how damaged it often came to him (in pieces). As happy with his current life as he was....he still wanted to fix it. Too many people had died, too many deaths had been preventable if Harry had just learned what he was supposed to and taken advice when he should have and not gotten into so much trouble. There were people missing in his life that should have been there -- like Dobby and Fred and Remus Lupin. Teddy was growing up without his parents. Ron and Hermione were divorced now. Severus Snape should have gotten to move on with his life and do what he wanted for a change.

No matter how good his life was, or how content he was at any given moment, he knew he could fix it. He could change it all, if he could just go back. Go back and save himself from the Dursleys. Go back and learn Occlumency. Go back and actually listen to Hermione, during fifth year -- save Sirius's life by just not taking the bait. He knew he could save them. He could fix it.

Harry had already been back in time, a little. But, time-turners had limitations. Twelve hours was all they could turn at any given time. Jumping back twelve hours at a time until he hit 1991 was ridiculous -- and impossible. So, instead, he was working on a device that would take him back to when he wanted to go. It was a clock, designed with calculations upon calculations and there was also a potion portion to the enchantment. He had some adjustments to make, certainly, and he'd probably head to Privet Drive to get to the where part of his plan, but.....Harry was going back.

He'd been working on it for years. Messing this way and that, recalibrating, recalculating, re-mixing potions and realigning based on the cosmos. He was firm in his belief that he was very, very close to the exact right thing. Before the next year dawned....he'd be back. And he'd save the world all over again, but this time...he'd be better. Smarter. More aware. And he wouldn't be a god damn horcrux, either.

He could do it. He could do it all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *** A/N  
> In this timeline, with the EWE in place, Ron would quit the Auror's in another 2 years and then go work with George. He and Hermione may even get back together at that point.


	2. Carrying Out The Plan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry gets ready to carry out his time-travel plan.

_4th November, 2010_

Hermione handed Harry a small satchel and then stepped back. "I'm not sure what you need it for, and you could charm one yourself, you know," she said disapprovingly. 

Harry chuckled. "Sentimental value. I know I could charm a bag with undetectable extensions myself, but I wanted the connection, 'Mione," he said fondly. "I don't know how long I'll be gone, it's quite the trip."

"To the ends of the earth for clock parts," Hermione commented, a little distracted as she kept her eyes on her children. Hugo, at only two, was playing with blocks on the floor while Rose, who had just turned five, was reading a large-print book in a chair by the fireplace.

The room was warm, cozy and homey -- a large room, with a fireplace on one wall, very comfy carpets covering the hardwood floor, and several child-size pieces of furniture scattered throughout, as well as bins of toys, a couple of bookshelves and, finally, an adult-size sofa along one wall. As the playroom for her kids, it connected (by a large archway) to a dining room, where the kitchen could just be seen from another archway. It was, in Harry's opinion, the best part of the house. He knew, because he had spent a lot of time here over the years, that the floor below them (the ground floor) held Hermione's large office, the floo-connected grand fireplace and receiving room, and a guest suite -- where Harry had stayed many a night. The floor above them (the second floor) held the three main bedrooms with their ensuite bathrooms and Winky's quarters. The top-most floor (third floor) was an attic, which Hermione used as a combination library and potions lab.

It was a fairly huge house, and Harry had been very glad to put up the down-payment so that they could afford it, eight years before. He'd wanted them settled, happy, and without any worries about the roof over their heads. He couldn't give them Black Manor (12 Grimmauld Place) because Andromeda and Teddy lived there -- in its remodeled, free-of-darkness, spacious rooms.

Tuning back into the conversation, Harry said, "It's not just clock parts, but, yeah. There's an old tree that Agar has agreed I can have to make my next Family Clock, it's payment for the one I made him, things like that."

Hermione nodded, a bit absently. "Hugo, don't put that in your mouth!" she said, sternly, as she walked over to pick up her son. Placing him on her hip, she turned to Harry. "You're lucky I was home today. I nearly went into the office, what with the summit with the Centaurs coming up so soon. Winky wouldn't have known where the bag even was."

Harry nodded and gave Hugo a huge smile while he began to make faces at him. Hugo squealed, laughed, chatted happily and then reached out for Harry.

Hermione huffed and then sighed. "You might as well take him, he'll just keep squirming otherwise," she said, but her voice was soft with affection.

"He's my godson, of course he likes me," Harry replied as he ruffled Hugo's very dark, very curly, mop of brown hair. "They're both so gorgeous, Hermione."

Hermione nodded and then gave a bit of a laugh. "The riot of red curls that Rose has will be something she'll have to learn to deal with...but yes, Ron and I made supremely beautiful children."

"Can't fix it, can you?" Harry murmured.

Hermione's face shut down. She shook her head. "No. It's done. We both tried very hard, but...no."

"Does he really never see them?" Harry asked sadly.

"I think he's seen them once in the last year. Hugo is likely to forget him, if it continues."

"It's sad. He seemed so good with them, always," Harry replied.

"He loved being a father, Harry. Other things just...got in the way. In his way. I...I do hope he'll come around. Rose misses him something dreadful." Hermione turned towards where Rose sat. 

"Rose, it's snack time. Let's get you and your brother set up in the dining room, quickly, please," she commanded.

Rose peeked up from her book and nodded. Silently, she got out of the chair and headed into the dining room.

"Well, I'm off. Wish me luck," Harry said as he handed Hugo to Hermione.

Hermione smiled. "You do like your adventures," she said.

Harry grinned and gave her a fast, hard hug. "I do, and I'll be fine, I promise."

***

Back in his home in Godric's Hollow, Harry stared at all of the things laid out on his bed. He had to decide what to take and what to leave here.

Harry looked up as a chime sound went off around the house. Since it indicated someone was at his floo, he started downstairs.

With four bedrooms and two bathrooms upstairs, a galley-style kitchen, a dining room, a living room, a library and a half-bath downstairs, as well as the large back garden, and the garden shed he actually used for potions, the house was much too large for Harry on his own, but still, he loved living there. He enjoyed the history of his family home and the connection with his past. Sure, he'd made some improvements and redone the whole kitchen, but the house was largely the same as it had been when his parents had lived there.

The ginormous Peverell-Potter Manor was still in Stitchcombe, and Harry had visited several times -- to clean it, to renovate what had needed it, and to get someone to live there -- but he hadn't wanted to live there. It was four times as big as the home in Godric's Hollow -- easily, and easily far too big for just Harry. At the moment, Ginny and Blaise lived there and they often had friends and other family up to stay.

At the stone fireplace, Harry said, "Who is it?"

"Potter, can I come through?" replied Draco Malfoy.

Harry nodded, tapped his wand on the green stone near the mantle and then stepped back. The fireplace opened and expanded, big enough for a person to stand in, and Draco Malfoy stepped out.

He brushed imagined soot off of his clothes for a few moments and then shot Harry a disapproving look.

Harry shrunk the fireplace back down with a wave of his hand and frowned. He ran his hand through his hair. "Why are you looking at me like that, Draco?"

Draco finished straightening his clothing and then went to stand by the back windows before he replied. "When are you going?"

"Going where?" Harry asked, genuinely confused.

"A little bird told me you are going to try travelling quite far back in time, don't be obtuse with me, Potter," Draco said.

"Since when is it Potter? You used to call me Harry," Harry grumbled.

"Whenever you are about to embark on something harebrained, mad and with the potential to end the world as we know it, I will call you Potter," came Draco's reply. "Don't change the subject."

Harry shuffled his feet. "Theodore told you."

Draco inclined his head for a moment and then gave in; he nodded. "He thinks you'll actually accomplish it."

"I will."

Now Draco shook his head. "Of all the idiotic and arrogant schemes. You can't mess with time in this way, Harry! Mother Nature and our Lady Magick will fight back. They will course correct whatever you manage to do, whoever you manage to save. And you have no idea to what you might come back to. The world in chaos, or worse."

"I can do it, Draco," Harry put his hands on his hips. "It will work. I'm not going back far enough to mess with anything vital. I'll still be the Boy Who Lived."

"When are you going?" Draco asked again.

"I can't tell you that. I won't go back far enough to save my parents, if you want to know. I won't mess with young Harry's timeline anymore than I have to. But I will save whoever I can," Harry said.

"That's not what I meant, Harry. And you can't know what you will and will not mess up." Draco sighed and finally turned away from the windows to look at Harry. "You might not be a Master Clockworker when you come back. You may have never been an Auror. We...we might never have become friends. You might not own the house, here. You might not maintain your friendships with Granger or Weasley. You might have never given Theo or Blaise a chance at your friendship. You and Ginevra might still be together. And there are even worse things that could happen. Riddle might still be alive. He might even be sane this time. You can't know. You'll mess with everything, with all of our lives."

"And people I love, people we both love, will still be alive," Harry explained.

"You mean Severus," Draco responded. 

Harry nodded. "I'm going to try to save Sirius and Cedric and Fred and Headmaster Dumbledore and Dobby and Lavender...whoever I can save, whatever I have to do."

Draco sighed. "Do you hate your life so much?" His face was drawn and suddenly he seemed weary; exhausted, like he was barely holding himself up.

"No." Harry stepped forward and grabbed Draco's hands. "No. By the gods, no. I like my life. There are parts I even love. But....but I'm the Saviour, Draco. The Chosen One. I think I can fix it. I know I can save them. Why not at least try?"

"Because you could destroy the world?" Draco rubbed the bridge of his nose with the back of his arm, leaving his hands in Harry's. "Have you told anyone? Anyone at all, aside from Theo?"

"I didn't tell Theo, he figured it out on his own. And, no, I've told no one," came Harry's answer.

"Not Longbottom or Lovegood or George? Not Ginevra or Blaise? Not even Granger or Weasley?" Draco asked, a little frantic.

"No. No one. Just you, now," Harry said softly. "And...I promise, once I've done the parts I need to do...I'll wind the clock again and come back."

Draco shook his head sadly. "You may not be able to come back. You certainly won't come back to the world as it is now."

It was Harry's turn to sigh. "I know. I've got to try."

Draco pulled away and spun back around. "Maybe you do." His voice was thick, devastated. "When do you leave?"

"The sixth. I need the full moon," Harry finally replied.

Draco nodded once and then headed for the floo. As it re-enlarged he said, "I will miss you, Potter. More than I thought possible." He was gone in a flash of green sparks.

Harry stared at the empty floo for a long time.

***

_6th November 2010_

Everything was ready. Hermione's expandable bag was packed with everything he thought he'd need. He'd spoken to the Goblins and put things together for his friends and loved ones in case he didn't survive. He'd taken out a large amount of gold, nearly liquidating one of his accounts. He was taking the Deathly Hallows with him, and he knew it was a risk -- the wand would disappear from the Headmaster's wand-holster, but Harry knew enough about it to know that Dumbledore would assume it had moved on to another Master. The cloak would also disappear from Dumbledore's things, but he hoped the Headmaster would simply assume it had returned to the Potter vaults. The stone would, simply, never be with the ring.

He had his two photo albums - keyed to his magickal signature - one containing the photos of his parents, Remus and Sirius; the other, containing photos of his friends and family. He had the map, but it was different enough [now] that he knew the original would still be nicked by Fred and George and hopefully make its way to young Harry. He had his forged paperwork, in case he needed it -- it was real data, just dates and signatures altered. His NEWT grades, his Auror training certificate, his birth certificate. He also had the knife Sirius had given him. One of its blades had melted right off, due to the Department of Mysteries, but the rest worked just fine still.

Harry also had a secondary wand, a change of clothes, a couple of books, a small pensieve, a couple of newspapers, two tiny vials --- one filled with a murky brown liquid, the other with something milky white, a pocket watch and a time-turner. The bag also contained his notes, calculations, and the recipe for the potion. He attached the bag by both a clip and a spell to his belt. The last things, which he held in his hands, were the clock and the potion. 

Outside, in his back garden, he stood underneath the full moon.

A short man, with long, springy black hair, sharp, bottle-green eyes, wide shoulders and a very slim figure, he downed the potion in one go and wound the clock to his specifications. He wore muggle clothes under a long, dark-blue robe. He chanted in Latin, Greek, and Irish. The spell was formulated by calculations, long-studied and long-held magicks, science, and moonlight. Harry opened the little door that would expose the clock-face to the elements and watched as the clock began to dissolve.

The dust created by the dissolving clock floated up, into the night air. Suddenly, the world began to vibrate and white showers of light enveloped Harry.

Harry screamed out the last lines of the chant as the light and the dust exploded around him and he winked out of existence.

The world spun backwards, faster and faster...and then it stopped and began spinning normally again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> According to canon (wikia and pottermore) Rose was born in either 2005 or 2006 between first Sept and thirty-first Aug. Here, I'm going with a birthday of November 1st, 2005.  
> Canonly, Hugo was born in either 2008 or 2009. Here, I'm going with 2008, making him 3 years younger than Rose.  
> (Also canon, Rose looks like her father, red hair, etc. Hugo inherited Hermione's looks)  
> In this fiction, Hermione and Ron have been divorced for a year (since November 2009).


End file.
